The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father

Question:  Is it correct to say that God punishes us for Adam’s sin? It appears to me to be charging Him with injustice and to give the enemy an advantage over us.
Answer.—God does not punish the children for the father’s sin. He says so in expostulation with Israel through Ezekiel: “What mean ye that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, the fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge? As I live, saith the Lord, ye shall not have occasion to use this proverb any more in the land of Israel. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him. . . . Yet ye say, The way of the Lord is not equal. O house of Israel, are not my ways equal? are not your ways unequal?” (Ezekiel 18:2, 3; 20).

We suffer death in consequence of Adam’s sin, but not in punishment of it. There is a distinction. To punish one man for the act of another is abhorrent to the ideas of justice that God propounds in His word; but to make it a law of generation that mortal shall produce mortal, does not bring with it the same idea. It is better to be born mortal with the hope of salvation through Christ than not to be born at all. Adam became mortal because of sin, and as his children, partaking of his nature, we cannot be otherwise than mortal; but to call it “punishment” is to confuse our moral perceptions, and to speak otherwise than the scriptures speak. Our correspondent puts the case well thus:
“Adam’s enjoyment was neutralized, and hope of life was taken away when he transgressed. The deprivation of what he enjoyed, present or prospective, was a punishment. If his sons were born before the transgression, and, without sinning, come under the law of death because Adam sinned, that surely would be a punishment. The reverse, however, appears to me to be the case. God gives us life, and we find by experience and revelation that our destiny is death. We have no claim upon the blessing of life, nor upon that of death (for the one seems as much a blessing as the other in our condition of existence). Therefore if there be any punishment at all, I think, it must be in the condition we are born into, and surely we should not presume to a better nature than possessed by our fathers. The case of the righteous men in Sodom proves the mercy of God, and does not affect his justice, unless it can be shown that God would have destroyed one righteous man because of the wickedness of the many.”

1892 Christadelphian: Volume 29. 2001 (electronic ed.) (262–263). Birmingham: Christadelphian Magazine & Publishing Association.